Custom Invitations for a Fun Group of Friends

This project is by far one of my all-time favorites: a design for custom party invitations, which included original watercolor illustrations I made special to convey a spooky, but still cute, theme for a Halloween Bunco party (Bunco is a popular social dice game). Every year, Padie (my mom), along with the other women in her Bunco group, each host a Bunco party during one particular month. Padie selected October and asked me early in the year if I would work with her to come up with custom party invitations that would not only portray the spooky fun to be had at her Halloween Bunco party and inspire her friends to attend in costume, but also, give everyone a story to remember as part of the custom party invitations experience.

We started brainstorming ideas, and it was clear right away that furry and feathered woodland creatures would need to be front and center in the design. Armed with the notes from our meetings, I started sketching characters and researching animals I could work into my drawings. After coming up with several rough pencil sketches of various woodland animals in Halloween costumes and the like, I settled on the cast of characters featured here: a squirrel, a rabbit, a deer and an owl. The final pencil drawings complete, I then got to work painting each character in watercolor shades that fit the fall theme. I painted a nighttime background, too, so that our woodland trick-or-treaters would appear on the invitation as part of a finished Halloween scene. After everything was scanned and printed, I printed out another copy of the three main characters, carefully cutting and affixing them by hand to the printed background (using foam squares). This pop-up technique makes these custom party invitations stand WAY out!

Custom Invitation and Garland for a Sweet Birthday Girl

Projects where I get to draw original illustrations are some of my very favorite, and this one for a custom invitation and garland is no exception! One of my previous clients, the mother of a sweet little girl nearing her first birthday, contacted me for custom invitation and garland designs centered on a peach theme. Being a fan of tassels and peach hues, Angie brought me her inspiration and ideas for Lucia’s birthday party and we met to discuss them and the items she wanted me to make. Custom illustrations of a peach and tassels were the first things I did, and were placed front and center on the digital invitation design sent out to the birthday party guests. Then I got to work on the handmade garland, which was to spell out “She’s a Peach!” and incorporate the colors and font Angie had chosen. I also made sure to work in a highlight of the custom invitation: my peach illustration.

I printed the peach illustration at a couple of different sizes and also cut out each individual peach by hand. Additionally, I used a Silhouette CAMEO to cut the letters out from gold shimmer paper and then I mounted each letter onto two layers of card stock paper sized and arranged to show a slight border when I adhered them together using my favorite tape runner, the Xyron Mega Runner. I then glued two paper circles at the top of each garland piece (for reinforcement where ribbon would be strung through) and punched holes in the center of each circle by hand using a special tool. Satin ribbon matching one of the card stock papers, in a light peach color, was carefully strung through the punched holes and the garland was complete.

At Lucia’s birthday party, the handmade custom garland served as a festive and decorative centerpiece above the dessert table, celebrating the guest of honor and welcoming family and friends to a very joyous and special event!

Custom Garlands and Signage for a Happy Bride-to-Be

A bridal shower is an occasion for friends and family to celebrate the bride-to-be with a festive party in anticipation of the upcoming wedding day. Decorations also factor in as an important part of the special occasion and that’s where my uniquely fitting design and maker skills come into play. Angie, the future sister-in-law to the bride-to-be, contacted me before the bridal shower she was helping to organize because they needed custom garlands and signage quickly, and she knew she could count on me to deliver high-quality finished products that fit the theme. She sent over the color palette, inspiration boards and invitations being used to guide the event planning for the wedding itself, and we talked over the phone so that she could describe her initial ideas. Once I knew what I needed to produce, I began gathering supplies and organizing everything—both in the way of physical products and digital assets—and went to work creating.

Because there were so many wonderfully vibrant colors being used in the wedding and Angie had expressed a desire to have one of the custom garlands (i.e., the letters garland) made using a gradient effect with several of the colors, my imagination was immediately sparked. With my digital mock-up approved, I collected paper samples and began mixing and matching in order to mirror the mock-up. I found the font being used on the invites, and hand painted each individual letter on the cards in the same style, being careful to paint each letter on the right color of card, so as to create the requested gradient effect from either end of the assembled garland. For the handmade tassel garland, I used several sheets of tissue paper in various hues, a rotary cutter, scissors and steel rulers with cork backing—not to mention quick and steady hands, which did all the folding, cutting, rolling and fluffing of tassels.

All finished pieces were decorative bliss and the tassel garland, along with an Instagram sign I made, were displayed at the shower on a beautiful antique gold organ piano. Angie and the bride-to-be were extremely happy with how well the embellishments helped mark the occasion and accent the evening’s celebration!

Business branding is graphic design work that I am trained to do and enjoy working on immensely. Helping a business define or refine their branding is satisfying because a logo is often the first impression a business makes, even before clients/customers delve into its products and/or services. My earliest experience observing a small business at work centers on my parents’ business, Winters Masonry, Inc. My parents, Doug and Padie, started the business over three decades ago when my dad finished his professional training and licensing as a brick mason and masonry contractor, and they have gradually built something rooted in their strengths and skill sets. Every day, they work together to provide custom and commercial services focused on brick, block and stone.

Early on in the business, my mom came up with the letterhead suite. Bricks were a visually appealing way to showcase one of my dad’s specialties: things built out of bricks (e.g., walls and fireplaces). Two rows of red bricks stacked on one another stretched across the business card, etc., with the words “Winters Masonry” floating in a thick black font just above. In recent years, it became evident that the branding could benefit from an update. A skilled graphic designer by that time, I came up with a logo mark that would tie in with the two rows of bricks and become the symbol of the stable business my parents have built over time. A trowel is one of the main tools I associate with the work my dad does. I did many sketches and ended up stacking and adjusting the W and M (i.e., the first letters in “Winters” and “Masonry,” respectively) in such a way that a trowel silhouette appeared within the negative space between the letters. My parents were very happy the new business branding managed to be more contemporary and representative of the business without losing the original visual statement.

Recently, I started participating in the 100 Day Project on Instagram, a creative challenge originally begun by artist and author Elle Luna and the print publication and online magazine The Great Discontent. It was easy for me to choose my theme and accompanying (unique) hashtag, which is #100DaysofEarlyChristmas. My main creative business goal this year is to create a line of holiday products based on my designs and drawings. Doing these daily drawings and posts for the challenge will keep me on track to have a sizable collection of ideas ready to develop into finished holiday-themed illustrations that will then be turned into cards, gift wrap and whatever else I can dream up. Having made it just over a third of the way through my journey in the challenge, this is the perfect time to gather up my ideas so far and post them here. This is a figurative high five to myself and everyone else participating, for not only taking on the challenge, but also for sticking with it.

One key part of the 100 Day Project is the fact that one publicly commits on Instagram to doing it, no matter when you actually join the challenge. It’s a daily exercise in which you have pledged to participate, and once you do that, you are now voluntarily connected to a group of people who have made the same pledge. You instantly feel the connection with everyone by way of common hashtags such as #The100DayProject. Each participant also has the option to choose their own, unique hashtag to coincide with their chosen theme, so that there is an instant showcase of their work on Instagram (when you click on their hashtag). Participants can create and post whatever strikes their fancy, each project being a distinct personal journey of some sort or other. I’ve seen posts by people working on improving a particular skill, getting back to doing an activity they love, sharing inspiration and daily rituals, and so on. The possibilities with this challenge are literally endless. For me, I’ve noticed that it’s gotten easier to just posting something, even if I’m not crazy about the piece, for the sake of keeping up with the challenge and my commitment to the daily practice of getting my ideas down on paper. The 100 Day Project brings into sharp focus how important it is to simply begin. Day One already seems like a long time ago, but if I had never started the journey, Day One wouldn’t even exist.